tickled pink


Also, tickled to death. Delighted, as in I was tickled pink when I got his autograph, or His parents were tickled to death when he decided to marry her. The first term, first recorded in 1922, alludes to one's face turning pink with laughter when one is being tickled. The variant, clearly a hyperbole, dates from about 1800.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use tickled pink in a sentence

  • "Norman Cox and Eustice Gray and the others are tickled pink with the $25," he confided.

    Rosemary | Josephine Lawrence
  • McGee was tickled pink by his timely arrival, but it was not all a matter of rejoicing.

    Aces Up | Covington Clarke